Patronus
by Jvalak
Summary: They're doing patronuses in DADA. James is shocked when he sees Lily's patronus.


The bell rang for the fourth hour, which was Defense against the Dark Arts, and Lily shuffled in along with the other sixth years who piled into the class room. The class was abuzz with excitement, because Professor Black had said they would be displaying their patronuses this class, and Lily had practiced until she had finally gotten a corporeal patronus.  
She took her seat beside Marlene and Mary, and then immediately wished she had sat somewhere else because she realized they were sitting right in front of the Marauders.

She didn't really have a problem with the Marauders. Just one marauder always managed to get under her skin. But recently, he had been getting under her skin in a different way.  
For five years, Potter had been her mortal nemesis, the arrogant bully who tormented Severus.  
But since the incident just before summer that she was definitely _not _thinking about, when Potter's bullying had resulted in Severus calling her a- _okay, no, not thinking about it.  
_Anyway, since then, Potter seemed to have been laying low for some seemed to be doing his bullying in secret now, since Lily hadn't seen him at it at all.  
_Or maybe, he's just not a bully. Maybe he's grown up.  
_She shushed her internal voice.  
This voice had been bothering her from the beginning of the sixth year.  
The voice kept saying things about James, things that began with _maybe_.  
_Maybe _James is a nice person.  
_Maybe _they could be friends.  
_Maybe _they could be …_stop it!  
_She had started noticing him a lot, how he laughed with his friends, how he played quidditch like his life depended on it, how he casually kept stealing food from the kitchens, how he grinned after he let all the nifflers loose, because he thought nobody had seen, but _she _had.  
How he sometimes _looked at her._  
She'd seen out of the corner of her eyes, trying to act indifferent.  
He'd been asking her out for five years, sticking to it incessantly, but abruptly this year, nothing.  
But she'd seen him _looking_ at her and it strangely affected her.

She was snapped out of her reverie when Professor Black said, "All right, form a line everyone, you'll come to the front of the class and try to produce a patronus. And because your homework was to _practice_ this, I'll be grading you on how well formed your patronus is."  
There was a general confused hubbub and then they were all standing in a line. Lily stood with Marlene in front of her, and …_of bloody course,_ James behind her.  
Lily tried to focus at the people trying the patronus charm. Most of them had mastered it by now, and they could produce a corporeal patronus with a couple of tries.  
Soon it was Lily's turn, and she stood in the front of the room and cleared her throat and went to her happy memory.  
It was a memory that was ostensibly insignificant to anyone but Lily.  
It was the first time she had gotten lost on her own in the castle, and she had just roamed about for ages, making conversation with the paintings and discovering doors hidden as walls and walls pretending to be doors.  
This might have seemed a weird memory to pick, but Lily remembered being completely contentedly happy in that moment, warm and safe, as though she _belonged_.

Her patronus bloomed out of the tip of her wand.  
A doe.  
It was a beautiful silver doe that began to prance around the room, leaving silvery mist in its wake.  
She watched it dart around happily, until it reached James.  
James looked stricken. He was staring at the doe as though it were a ghost. Well, okay not a ghost, because ghosts were actually pretty normal.  
But he was staring at it in complete shock.  
She didn't understand. She frowned in bewilderment, and her doe slowly dissolved away.  
Professor Black clapped his hands together and said, "All right, who's next? Mr. Potter, I believe it's your turn."  
James turned to him and said, "wh..what?"  
"Your turn, James. You have to show me your patronus," Professor Black said.  
James seemed to shake out of his shock. He quickly walked to the front of the class, but instead of doing his patronus, he walked to Professor Black and whispered to him, "Professor, please, can I show you my patronus after the class is over? I'm afraid I have a small case of stage fright."  
Lily almost laughed at this. _Stage fright? James Potter?! The boy was practically a peacock!  
_Then she immediately felt intensely curious. _What was James afraid to show? _  
She gave him a puzzled look as he decidedly avoided her eye, and walked back to her seat.

Soon after everyone was done exhibiting their patronus charm, the bell rang for lunch, and everybody started bustling out of the class room.  
Lily hadn't forgotten about the whole James-being-weird thing.  
She told Marlene and Mary that she'd meet them in the Great Hall, and she hung back, right outside the class room door, making sure James didn't see her.  
After a few seconds, she heard him do the charm. She quickly moved to peek through the door, and then stopped in shock.  
It was a stag.  
It was a beautiful silver stag that was prancing around the room.  
It was a _stag._  
It was a perfect match.  
"_Oh." _It was all she could say.  
He heard her.  
He turned and looked at her worriedly, like he thought she might hex him or something.  
She watched the stag do one last gallop and then disappear.  
He hadn't wanted her to be embarrassed in front of the whole class, because their patronuses were the exact match for each other.  
_That's why he had acted so weird._  
She looked at him, really looked at him then.  
He was still looking at her sheepishly, running his hand through his hair, messing it up, but somehow she didn't think he was doing it for attention right now.  
Professor Black cleared his throat and said, "Okay, that's full marks. You can leave now, Mr. Potter."

James tucked his wand back into his cloak, and came walking towards the door. Lily was still looking hard at him.  
"Uh, Lily?" he said.  
"Huh?"  
"You're staring at me. It's freaking me out just a bit."  
She shook herself and looked at him. Then she smiled, like really smiled.  
He smiled too, and said, "You're smiling at me. Now I'm really freaked out."  
She laughed and paused for a moment, then said, "Are you going down to lunch?"  
He looked at her questioningly and said , "I suppose?"  
"All right then, let's go," she said.  
He looked at her in a bit of a shock, then slowly began to smile.  
"Let's go."  
And they started walking together._  
_


End file.
